Staying Safe in a Hotel

There are ways to protect yourself in a home-away-from-home

By Betty W. Stark, Business travel consultant and columnist, Stark Consulting

It’s easy to understand how business travelers, especially those on the road week after week, become complacent about personal safety. It’s the routine and drudgery of business travel that takes their eye off the ball---and makes them more vulnerable to thieves, muggers, and the other bad things that can confront them. Hotels in particular can be hotbeds of danger.

Though hotels encourage you to feel “at home” when you stay with them, that’s precisely the wrong thing to do. It’s better to set your mind on high alert so you are tuned in to what’s going on around you, not only in the lobby, parking ramp and elevator, but in your room as well.

Before you check in, you should:

1. Know your destination.
2. Find gadgets that will keep you safe.
3. Keep your electronics safe too.
4. Learn from safety experts.

Know your destination

Pre-trip preparation should include more than just knowing the location of your hotel. Before you travel to a destination for the first time, review current local news. It will help you get the lay of the land and be alert to potential trouble hot spots, especially in the neighborhood where you’ll be staying. But don’t stop there! Do this again before making a return visit, to update yourself on what conditions might have improved or, more importantly, worsened.
Try: You’ll find links to almost all major newspapers in the world at Kidon Media-Link. If your company is heavily involved in international travel, consider signing on to one of the travel intelligence services for destination information and pre-trip briefings. International SOS, iJET, and Global Options all provide fee-based services.

Use gadgets to keep yourself safe

The risk of being a frequent traveler to the same destination and especially to the same hotel is that you begin to feel comfortable. And you let down your guard. That’s when you’re the most vulnerable.
Try: Carry a door alarm to protect against hotel room intrusions. Guard against a window intruder with a window stop and alarm. Carry a high-decibel alarm for those walks from the parking ramp and down long hallways. Carry a small flashlight for those times when you have to unlock your rental car, hunt for a room key or find your way in a dimly lit area. Protect yourself from hotel fires.

Safeguard your electronics

Business travelers are notorious for hauling along thousands of dollars worth of equipment crammed with critical information, then doing little or nothing to protect the data or equipment from hotel room theft.
Try: You can protect your laptop from hotel room theft, or, better yet, leave your laptop at home. Download critical data to a removable flash drive no bigger than your house key and access a computer at the hotel business center or an office center such as FedExKinko’s.

Learn from safety experts

Safety and security experts offer tips on hotel safety and for a fee will train you too.
Try: into safety consulting services and products available from Detective Kevin Coffey. Read the hotel safety advice offered by Peter Savage, a senior consultant with an international security firm.